Another tactics thought -- at some point we may want to think about the possibility of building one or more military starbases. I have not analyzed this thoroughly yet from a cost/benefit standpoint, but am throwing it out as an idea. The idea with a military starbase is that it takes the role of catapults in Civ3 - it acts as a force magnifier, so that you can fight more battles with fewer losses, improving your kill ratio so you can do more with less. In theory this allows you to more easily concentrate on other tasks (like research/social spending) while your existing military holds off (gasses, in Civ3 terms) the enemy. Testing with the simulator shows that even modest bonuses from the SB can give significant results in unit survivability.
One problem is, Civ3 catapults are mobile, SBs are not (except with Terror Star tech.) We would need to formulate a plan to lure enemy ships to strong points for destruction. Another problem is, starbases are moderately resource-intensive. If we want to try this, we will have to make a commitment to it at some point, and we will have to time when to make that commitment fairly carefully.
One problem is, Civ3 catapults are mobile, SBs are not (except with Terror Star tech.) We would need to formulate a plan to lure enemy ships to strong points for destruction. Another problem is, starbases are moderately resource-intensive. If we want to try this, we will have to make a commitment to it at some point, and we will have to time when to make that commitment fairly carefully.